Ford taurus issues
 

So my moms 96' Ford taurus that only has 33k on it is fucking killing me. I really don't like even working on the car, but I need to make sure its safe.

Lately the car has been acting up when it feels like it. One day it drive fine, no issues at all. The next day its fucking shaking like crazy at highway speeds and when just barely rolling it pulsates like a slow-go-slow-go type of rotation.

Today I took the wheels off and the driver side caliper looks like its been on fire. After a quick 2 minute drive around the block the rotor was already burning hot. And when in neutral the tire is pretty hard to turn.

This all leads me to believe I should just put new calipers, rotors, and pads on the front. Does this sound logical? Last week when it was doing it I figured it was the wheels or tires, but after some reading it seems they would produce a consistent shaking, rather than here and there.

You could try cleaning and lubricating everything first.
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I don't think you need new calipers unless the dust boots have been roasted off. Sounds like your caliper slide pins have either frozen up or are gummed up. Fords are famous for slid pin issues. Take them apart, clean the pins real good, and use Ford's Slide pin grease (XG-3-A). That stuff is better than any after market crap out there. Plus it is a great dielectric grease :D Reassemble and be happy. :D

Also if you having power problems your cats could be shot to hell.

80% of stuck calipers I have ran across were fixable. +1 on cleaning them. Take the pins out and get all of the old lube out before you put new lube on, if its rusted up you will need a wire wheel. Who knows, might be the problem..

What you described sounds like a stuck caliper to me though, one of the front calipers on my Teg used to stick slightly, once I got up to 65-70 the rotor would heat up and the whole car would shake horribly.

Thanks for the quick responses guys. I've got some grease and a wire wheel machine so I'm gonna take them apart and give them a good cleaning. I don't know why...but I always think about buying new all the time. I hope this works, my mom will be stoked if I can fix it for free. lol :bigtu:

be sure to work the piston abit to and do a good bleed through of fluid. Also how old are the pads and who put them on i have been given pads that where to thick before and it sure had me scratching me head for awhile as well. check your wheel bearings and everything while you are in there just to be sure of what you have :D

what a god awful car. My daughter had one. Tranny, cam, electrical, etc. A week after I replaced the heater-core she totaled it. :)

Ok so I took the calipers off and the rotors look decent, and the pads have about 50% life left on them. The driver side front took a good amount of force to turn the wheel by hand at first, now it moves by hand with slight effort, same as the passenger side.

I took it for a quick spin and it was all good, but thats not saying much. I'm going to take it out tonight and see how it acts. Shitty thing is I couldn't find my bleeder bottle and my c-clamps, so I wasn't able to play with the piston or bleed them.

This car has been nothing but problems. My mom still thinks its new because it only has 33k on it, but I keep trying to tell her its a ford....and its a 96'. My parents normally take my dads gmc when they go out, so this taurus does a lot of sitting. Rust like you wouldn't believe!

See if you can get her to sell it to somebody else who thinks a 33k mile '96 is "new" and will give you more than $2k for it. Trust me, any day you part with a Taurus is a happy day. But perhaps I am biased. I drove a Taurus in high school. :loser: Don't feel bad about the car being crappy despite not getting driven, because they go crappy when driven too. ;)

I wouldn't mind having one of the new SHOs.
Twin turbo V6, all wheel drive, not too shabby.
But yeah the old ones sucked.